According to stock analysts, although net selling by foreigners declined compared with Friday's level, their trades continued to focus on blue chips. This dampened the psychology of domestic investors.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost 1.13 per cent to close the session at 545.19 points while the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, dropped 1.1 per cent to end at 576.60 points.

A similar trading movement has repeated in recent weeks: rising in the morning with low liquidity, but falling in the afternoon on strong selling.

"It's a change in investor psychology when they cannot withstand high selling pressure and decide to sell off to diminish losses," said analysts on the financial website vietstock.vn.

Both local bourses started the week on green notes, driven by optimistic economic data, particularly the GDP growth of more than 6 per cent in the first quarter. However, continued selling pressure weighed the market down towards the end of the day.

Liquidity improved, however, with market volume climbing 20 per cent over the previous session, totalling 108.6 million shares, while the value of trades soared 40 per cent to reach nearly VND2.2 trillion ($102.8 million).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also edged down 0.98 per cent to finish at 81.59 points. Weak trades here dried up liquidity with a total of 42 million shares worth VND9515 billion ($24.1 million) being traded by the end of the session, down 20 per cent in volume and 10 per cent in value compared with Friday's levels.